1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an implement combination including a self-propelled support vehicle and comprising implements preferably useable in the agricultural field such as, in particular, mowing units or mowing and processing units for harvesting agricultural crops. The support vehicle is provided accordingly with a front-mounted implement having correlated therewith at least one additional side-mounted implement. By means of a lifting device the implement or implements can be transferred from a working and operating position into a partially raised head land position or into a completely raised transport position. Such implement combinations are known in many different embodiments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In practice, it happens frequently that when mowing edge areas near fences, in particular, in the corner areas, the support vehicle must be driven in reverse with the mowing units being in the working and operating position. For this purpose, it is mandatory that before reverse travel all mowing units must be raised by the operator into a head land position. In practical use, however, it was found that this raising of the mowing units into the head land position is frequently overlooked by the operator; this results in damage to the mowing units because they are pushed into the already mowed crops or into the soil during reverse travel. The suspension of the mowing units is damaged in this way.
It is an object of the present invention to configure an implement combination vehicle of the aforementioned kind such that operating errors, in particular, during practical operation of the vehicle and during reverse travel, are prevented.
In accordance with the present invention, this is achieved in that the implement or implements on the support vehicle, in particular, the control unit of the raising device, is coupled such with the control and switching device of the traveling gear that, with the command for reverse travel of the support vehicle, the implement or implements are mandatorily raised at least into the partially raised head land position.
Preferably, the coupling between the raising device and the control and switching device of the traveling gear is realized by mechanical and/or electrical and/or hydraulic and/or pneumatic switching elements.
The coupling can be achieved by linking or chaining program flows of the traveling gear and of the raising device. Preferably, by means of linking or chaining the program flows of the traveling gear and of the raising device in connection with a command for reverse travel of the support vehicle, when using at least two implements, sequential switching for the program flow of the raising device is cancelled for the time of reverse travel.
The implement combination according to the invention provides that the raising movement of the implements in an embodiment, having an implement mounted at the front end or arranged at the front end and at least one implement side-mounted on the support vehicle relative to the travel and working direction, is controlled such that the command for reverse travel of the support vehicle results mandatorily in a raising of the implement or implements. According to the invention, a raising device of the support vehicle, which is provided for transferring the implement or implements from a working and operating position close to the ground into a partially raised head land position or into a completely raised transport position, is coupled with a control or switching device for the traveling gear of the support vehicle such that upon activation of the command for initiating reverse travel mandatorily a transfer of the implement or implements at least into the partially raised head land position is initiated. The partially raised head land position is defined such that the working implements are raised at least to such an extent that already deposited harvested crops swaths will not be contacted by the working tools of the implements and therefore will not be disturbed. The implement combinations for which the invention is suitable are, for example, self-propelled support vehicles or tractors which are furnished at least with one front-mounted implement in the form of a mowing and processing unit. This front-mounted implement can have correlated therewith side-mounted implements and embodied as mowing and processing units, wherein xe2x80x9cside-mountedxe2x80x9d in this context is meant to include attachment variations of an arrangement laterally adjacent to the front-mounted implement, an intermediate arrangement between the axles, and a rear-mounted arrangement. Moreover, the invention can also relate to an implement combination which is in the form of a self-propelled forage chopper with front-mounted, exchangeable harvesting attachment for harvesting corn plants or with a receiving drum for receiving swaths of grass or the like.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention can be based on the coupling between the raising device of the support vehicle and a control and shifting device of the traveling gear of the self-propelled support vehicle by means of mechanical, electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic switching elements. However, it is also conceivable that the selection of the switching elements includes combinations such as mechanical/electric or hydraulic/electric or pneumatic/electric embodiments. Moreover, in this connection the use of on-board computers is possible so that the coupling of the raising device with the control and switching device of the traveling gear can be achieved by linking or chaining program flows of the traveling gear and the raising device.
An advantageous further embodiment of the invention relates, for example, to an implement combination comprised of a front-mounted mowing and processing unit and two side-mounted mowing and processing units (front-mounted and side-mounted defined relative to the travel and working direction), wherein a sequence control (sequential switching) for raising the mowing and processing units is provided. This means that in the raising action of the mowing and processing units first the front-mounted mowing and processing unit is raised and, subsequently, after completion of a predetermined time interval correlated with the travel speed of the support vehicle, also the side-mounted mowing and processing units are raised. According to the invention, it is now provided that for the duration of reverse travel such a sequence control or sequential switching is cancelled because, before beginning the reverse travel, all mowing and processing units must be raised at the same time in order to prevent damage to the suspension of the mowing and processing units. Such a cancellation of the standard function is, for example, possible by an additional program command stored in the on-board computer.